Episode 128 • 18th July 2024 • The Living Church Podcast • The Living Church
Ever run out of preaching material for a major feast day? May today’s episode inspire you.
It’s funny how the gospel unveils and then veils itself to us in seasons of our ministry and preaching. There are so many times when there’s more than we can capture. And then other times it feels like the well runs dry on the same passage we’ve come to for years. But this “dryness” may just be an invitation to dig in a new direction or to a new depth.
Today we’ve got a fascinating dispatch from the Rev. Dr. Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, a Lutheran pastor in Tokyo who got tired of trying to find something new to preach about the Transfiguration. Sarah trusted the abundance of God’s word to not return void, and kept digging, and that digging turned into a whole book about what she found: Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration.
Turns out, the Transfiguration is the center point of the Gospel of Mark. Turns out, St. Paul is very interested in the Transfiguration, and the Transfiguration is very interested in Jewish pilgrimage festivals and the end times. And the Gospel of John might keep the Transfiguration on the DL for a very good reason.
Today we’ll learn why we’ve got two of these feasts a year, where apples and grapes come in, and a little about ancient laundering practices — all just in time, maybe, to give you some inspiration for you own festal sermon.
Sarah is Associate Pastor at Tokyo Lutheran Church and the Founder of Thornbush Press. She has written, edited, and contributed to numerous books of both theology and fiction and has published hundreds of articles. She hosts the podcasts Queen of the Sciences, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories, and The Disentanglement Podcast, and writes the e-newsletter Theology & a Recipe.
They may not be “whiter than a fuller could bleach them,” but get ready for some brilliant insights nevertheless. We hope you enjoy the conversation.
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